Tonight, We Are Young
by AStrangeVessel
Summary: Godric Gryffindor and Salazar Slytherin knew each other long before the founding of Hogwarts. In fact, they'd grown up together. Set during the founders' childhoods and teen years (most likely). (Please disregard the suckiness of this generic plot summary. I'll eventually go in and fix it once I get to writing the finer details of the actual story.)
1. Things We Lost in the Fire

A child can't be expected to know why their life can go from seemingly perfect to literal ruins overnight.

In all likelihood, or reality, the plot had been in the works for some time. But I didn't know any better. I was only six years old at the time.

Hang on, let me start over.

I was the youngest of five children. Our father had four daughters with his first wife, who died giving birth it the youngest of my half-sisters. All four of my half-sisters are pure-blood witches, all taught respect to all magical people.

Those last two facts are important, considering my own mother was a Muggle.

My parents were well respected in both the magical and Muggle communities, until anti-magic fear spread throughout the country.

People still aren't sure who started the fire, I've heard. Wizards and Muggles alike have been blaming the other side for years.

I may've been young at the time it happened, but... As the years have gone by, I've started to wonder if it was some witch or wizard who did it, and then blamed a Muggle. A Muggle may not've known that wizards don't normally die in fires.

I was asleep one night when I heard shouts and a struggle down the hall. I hid under the bed until I heard the sounds coming closer. I thought I started to smell smoke. At that point, I crawled towards my fireplace and opened a hidden passage. As I slipped into the passage and slip the secret door closed, I heard someone enter my room, swearing because they'd just missed me.

I was lucky to escape the massacre of my family.


	2. And I Ran, I Ran So Far Away

I started running through the forest with just the clothes on my back.

Some part of me knew I should avoid roads and towns, since I was fleeing for my life. Other than that, I was just a terrified child with no survival skills.

I had no idea how to find food, other than what I'd hoped was edible plant life, or how to find water, other than the occasional stream I came across.

I was dehydrated, starving, and close to collapse a matter of days later, when I got careless and stumbled too close to what could barely be called a road. A couple strolled by, stopping just short of my hiding spot. I'd been caught.

The two of them not-quite-whispered to each other.

The man wanted to leave me, thinking I was some sort of beggar child. (I'll admit that I probably looked the part, after the journey I'd had.) His wife managed to convince him to take me in.

To be honest, at that point, I was starting to be glad of my mistake. I was hungry, thirsty, exhausted, and lonely.

The woman coaxed me all the way out of the trees and took my hand. She told me I'd be feeling something funny, and that I shouldn't be afraid.

That was the first time I'd had any experience with Apparating, though guided. We'd ended up at the couple's home.

I say home, though that term is rather understated. My own family was moderately wealthy, but my childhood home paled in comparison to this.

I didn't have all that much time to take in my surroundings at the time. I'd been cleaned up, physically mended, reclothed, and sent to bed, all in rather quick succession.

Lord knows I'd needed all of that.


	3. I Never Saw Blue Like That Before

I was so exhausted from running away from my burning home and my family's murders that, after going to bed in my rescuers' manor home, I remained unconscious for days.

When I eventually woke up, I saw a pair of blue eyes staring into my own brown ones. It scared me half to death.

It turned out that the eyes belonged to a dark-haired boy not much older than me. Realizing I was staring at him, he backed away from my face and grinned.

"I found you in here after mummy and daddy brought you here a week ago. I like you. I've been waiting for you to wake up, so you could be my friend. But mummy says I have to ask you to be my friend first."

I heard someone come into the room. It turned out to be the lady of the house, the woman who insisted to her husband that they take me in.

"Mummy! Mummy, look! He's awake!" the boy said, bouncing on his knees while in the bed next to me.

The woman kindly shushed her son as she sat down in a chair next to the bed. "I see that, Salazar." She turned her attention to me and said, "I apologise for my son. He's been rather impatient while waiting for you to recover. We live a rather secluded life, and his younger siblings unfortunately never survived infancy; you can imagine he's been rather lonely."

The woman introduced herself as Lady Slytherin, and her son as eight-year-old Salazar; their family was apparently a prominent Pureblood wizarding family, but they'd been living in seclusion due to increasing Muggle oppression. She then asked if I was feeling well enough to tell the story of how I'd come across her and her husband the week prior.

I started my story. "I'm Godric Gryffindor. I'm six years old. I don't know how long it's been, but I've been on the run since my whole family was killed." I'd told them everything.

"Oh, you poor child! My husband told me that he had heard that your family had died, but he didn't know what had really happened. Everything he'd been told was speculation, even the part where you'd also been killed."

It was that day that Salazar Slytherin became my best friend.

And later that night, once her husband had come home from his position in the rudimentary magical government that had been forming, the Slytherin family had taken me in as their ward.


End file.
